Word Origin & History

gutter late 13c., Anglo-Norman gotere, from O.Fr. guitere, from goute "a drop," from L. gutta. Originally "a watercourse," later "furrow made by running water" (1580s). Meaning "trough under the eaves of a roof to carry off rainwater" is from mid-14c. Figurative sense of "low, profane" is from 1818.

Example Sentences for gutter

I can throw him in the gutter as easy as I could them young ones, and he knows it.

A dozen times on the way home had Dirk been on the point of consigning it to the gutter.

Why, they might just as well be thrown into the gutter and carried off in the scavenger's cart.

They gutter highways, but oftenest let Low Ways gutter them.

You have begun life at the top of the tree, and you have chosen to fling your chances into the gutter.

"Nor do I want to go back to the gutter," he declared fiercely.

Brought up in the gutter, he was from the first incorrigibly lazy and vicious.

She still had to sweep the dirty water out into the gutter, and then do the final rinsing.

I'll squat you down in the gutter if you don't look out, Miss Fine-airs!

He steps aside to avoid a cart, and runs into a man, who drops his cigar in the gutter.